the essential
The Council of State validated this Tuesday the building permit for the Occitanie Tower which had been attacked by three associations and local residents. Nothing stands in the way of launching work on Toulouse's first skyscraper.
This is the end of a six-year legal battle. This Tuesday, the Council of State validated the building permit for the Occitanie Tower which had been attacked before the administrative court, then on appeal, by a collective of opponents, made up of three associations and local residents. This decision is hardly surprising since during the hearing on October 10, the public rapporteur concluded in this sense.
Concretely, this means that, legally, nothing stands in the way of the construction of Toulouse's first skyscraper, 150 meters high, near Matabiau station. Its promoter, the Compagnie de Phalsbourg, through its president, Philippe Journo, has always affirmed its desire to see this project designed by architect Daniel Libeskind through to the end.
When will the launch of what promises to be a huge project take place? On this chapter, the developer did not comment, indicating that, if the architecture of the Tower remained as is, the uses would undoubtedly have to be rethought.
“Double skin” facade
To challenge this project for a 40-story tower with a height of 150 meters in which housing, offices, a hotel, shops, two restaurants as well as premises of collective interest and public services are currently planned, the collective which campaigns for “citizen urban planning” denounced in particular the inadequacy of the impact study and the negative consequences of the project on the environment. The Council of State first confirmed that “the project owner could legally integrate the high-rise building project and understand the effects on the environment on the global scale of the project in which the construction was part. in dispute. »
The Parisian magistrates then validated “the developer's desire to constitute, in the urban landscape, an emblematic architectural figure to identify a new centrality in the city center of Toulouse. »
Finally, the high administrative court ruled in turn that “the choices of the project owner concerning the greening of the project, its orientation and its glazing, take into account the objectives of reducing energy needs, particularly in terms of air flow. . The impact study precisely describes how the design of the project and its “double skin” facade system, its greening, its orientation and its glazing, take into account these objectives, particularly in terms of air flow and reduction in energy needs. »
